Resolved for the New Year

As an adult I've always made resolutions on New Year's Eve. It's a way of ending the old year, thinking about what transpired, what I accomplished, what I would have done differently, and the year ahead. Perspective, really.

For the New Year I try to think not just about projects, rather more about what I want to learn or improve upon in my life, whether that be a skill/craft, subject or practice.

I figure if I stop learning and/or creating I'll atrophy. And I can't have that.

John takes a somewhat different view. Our first New Year's Eve we had a glass of bubbles at 9 p.m. and wrote our resolutions together before heading off to bed, night owls that we are. I thought it was great that we had done these jointly as a couple plus I had my own personal goals and aims for the next year per usual.

Well, the following year John announced that he had come to view resolutions as Karen's "To Do List" and decided he wasn't going to participate. So that year I took my little book, pouted and sniffed, and did my own, keeping them private, thank you.

I persist with making New Year's resolutions for myself each year; they're important to me. I want to keep learning and growing, and this is one way for me to think about what I want to do with my life and how to go about it. Other people can do that however they see fit. What works for me doesn't work for everyone, clearly!

Some 2011 resolutions I'm thinking about:

• Learn/perfect my digital photography skills (aka the new EOS camera) along with Adobe Photoshop;
• With help from the professionals, learn to set up and maintain our Struan Farm website;
• Finish our marketing collateral for the farmstay and Struan Farm Knitting Studio;
• Take photos around the farm in different seasons, times of day, and weather;
• Develop a list of ideas for knitting workshops and retreats in 2012, contact teachers who might be interested, figure out the business model;
• Improve our social network marketing, which is feeble/improvised at best;
• Set up a Ravelry group for Struan Farm Knitting Studio when appropriate (thanks Lisa Cruse for this suggestion!);
• Make an outdoor BBQ out of our recycled bricks, and don't give up on that pizza oven either;
• Plant our flatto peach tree in winter, on order from Mapua Country Trading;
• Needlepoint, needlepoint, needlepoint: flax pew cushions, Christmas stockings for Ella and Olivia;
• Learn artisanal cheesemaking;
• Have TWO knitters retreats with the ladies at the farm in 2011.
• Last but not least (rather first and foremost), lavish love and attention on John.

Gosh, if my resolutions are already done, maybe I can call it a New Year and just drink bubbles with John....

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Yvette]

OOOhh I love this tradition, and I certainly love the idea of christmas stockings for your grandbabies. You really need to put a picture up of the one you did for JOJO. Nana KB certainly is talented

[Karen]

Actually, I have done a post on Christmas decorations with a pic of John's Nutcracker stocking....check the "crafts" category, it's back about two weeks.